radar-helm-charts

The helm charts of the RADAR-base platform. Installation of these charts is best managed via RADAR-Kubernetes. Use the releases in this repository by referencing helm repository radar with URL https://radar-base.github.com/radar-helm-charts.

About

RADAR-base is an open-source platform designed to support remote clinical trials by collecting continuous data from wearables and mobile applications. RADAR-Kubernetes enables installing the RADAR-base platform onto Kubernetes clusters. RADAR-base platform can be used for wide range of use-cases. Depending on the use-case, the selection of applications need to be installed can vary. Please read the component overview and breakdown to understand the role of each component and how components work together.

The radar-helm-charts setup uses Helm 3 charts to package necessary Kubernetes resources for each component.

This documentation assumes familiarity with all referenced Kubernetes concepts, utilities, and procedures and familiarity with Helm charts.

Prerequisites

The following tools should be installed in your local machine to install the RADAR-Kubernetes on your Kubernetes cluster.

Component	Description
helm 3	Helm Charts are used to package Kubernetes resources for each component
kubernetes	The charts support Kubernetes versions 1.19 up to 1.22.
helm-docs	README generator for each chart.

Installation of these charts is best managed via RADAR-Kubernetes.

Usage

The radar-helm-charts Github project publishes a Helm repository radar with URL https://radar-base.github.com/radar-helm-charts. Any time a commit to the main branch is made that modified one of the helm charts, a new Github release is created for that chart. It is also published to the Helm repository. For that reason, ensure that the Chart.yaml file of the respective Helm chart is up to date for any commit made to main. In general, the main branch should only be updated via Github pull requests.

Before making a PR back to the main, ensure that the README of the chart is up to date using the command:

helm-docs -s file --template-files=charts/_templates.gotmpl --template-files=DOCS.md.gotmpl --template-files=README.md.gotmpl --chart-search-root=charts

or, when using Docker:

HELMDOCS_IMAGE=jnorwood/helm-docs:v1.8.1
docker run --rm -v "$(pwd):/helm-docs" $HELMDOCS_IMAGE -s file --template-files=charts/_templates.gotmpl --template-files=DOCS.md.gotmpl --template-files=README.md.gotmpl --chart-search-root=charts

For general usage and instructions view the helm-docs README. Below is a short summary.

In each chart directory use the following files to define what the README contents should be.

1. In README.md.gotmpl define which sections should be printed to README, with syntax

   {{ template "chart.header" . }}
   {{ template "chart.deprecationWarning" . }}
   
   {{ template "chart.badgesSection" . }}
   
   {{ template "chart.description" . }}
   
   {{ template "chart.homepageLine" . }}
   
   {{ template "chart.maintainersSection" . }}
   
   {{ template "chart.sourcesSection" . }}
   
   {{ template "common.prerequisites" . }}
   
   {{ template "chart.requirementsSection" . }}
   
   {{ template "chart.valuesSection" . }}
   

2. In DOCS.md.gotmpl, define any sections not part of helm-docs:

   {{ define "mychart.usageSection" -}}
   {{- end }}
   

3. In Chart.yaml define as many metadata fields as possible, including at least the description, homepage, maintainer, sources, and requirements.

4. In the values.yaml file, put a comment line before each variable with two dashes --. Any text after the two dashes will be used as documentation for that variable.

Updating external charts

External charts can be updated by running make update-<chart-name>. At the moment there are a few manual steps are needed which should be automated. The external charts that have a depedency need manual steps:

• The external dependency should be mirrored in the this repository with helm pull commands that are in the Makefile, make sure the mirrored version is same as the one specified in the Chart.yaml.
• The external dependency should be relased on the main branch first so there will be a valid release of it in our chart repository.
• In the Chart.yaml the repository should be changd to https://radar-base.github.io/radar-helm-charts.
• The Chart.lock file should be removed and then run helm dependency build to recreate the file with new repository URL and remove any .tgz files that gets created.

kube-prometheus-stack

For this chart, Chart.yaml needs to be updated to the latest version, remove Chart.lock and run helm dependency build. Make sure to copy the CRDs from https://github.com/prometheus-community/helm-charts/tree/main/charts/kube-prometheus-stack/charts/crds/crds to https://github.com/RADAR-base/RADAR-Kubernetes/blob/main/etc/kube-prometheus-stack/files/crds.yaml

Feedback and Contributions

Enabling RADAR-base community to use RADAR-Kubernetes is important for us. If you have troubles setting up the platform using provided instructions, you can create an issue with exact details to reproduce and the expected behaviour. You can also reach out to the RADAR-base community via RADAR-base Slack on radar-kubernetes channel. The RADAR-base developers support the community on a voluntary basis and will pick up your requests as time permits.